Across the Zodiac eBook

pursue indefinitely, without divergence, diffusion,
or loss, the direction in which it emerges. Therefore,
by collecting the current from the generator in a
vessel cased with antapergic material, and leaving
no other aperture, its entire volume might be sent
into a conductor. By cutting across this conductor,
and causing the further part to rotate upon the nearer,
I could divert the current through any required angle.
Thus I could turn the repulsion upon the resistant
body (sun or planet), and so propel the vessel in
any direction I pleased.

I had determined that my first attempt should be a
visit to Mars. The Moon is a far less interesting
body, since, on the hemisphere turned towards the
Earth, the absence of an atmosphere and of water ensures
the absence of any such life as is known to us—­probably
of any life that could be discerned by our senses—­and
would prevent landing; while nearly all the soundest
astronomers agree in believing, on apparently sufficient
grounds, that even the opposite hemisphere [of which
small portions are from time to time rendered visible
by the libration, though greatly foreshortened and
consequently somewhat imperfectly seen] is equally
devoid of the two primary necessaries of animal and
vegetable life. That Mars has seas, clouds, and
an atmosphere was generally admitted, and I held it
to be beyond question. Of Venus, owing to her
extraordinary brilliancy, to the fact that when nearest
to the Earth a very small portion of her lighted surface
is visible to us, and above all to her dense cloud-envelope,
very little was known; and though I cherished the intention
to visit her even more earnestly than my resolve to
reach the probably less attractive planet Mars, I
determined to begin with that voyage of which the
conditions and the probable result were most obvious
and certain. I preferred, moreover, in the first
instance, to employ the apergy as a propelling rather
than as a resisting force. Now, after passing
beyond the immediate sphere of the Earth’s attraction,
it is plain that in going towards Mars I should be
departing from the Sun, relying upon the apergy to
overcome his attraction; whereas in seeking to attain
Venus I should be approaching the Sun, relying for
my main motive power upon that tremendous attraction,
and employing the apergy only to moderate the rate
of movement and control its direction. The latter
appeared to me the more delicate, difficult, and perhaps
dangerous task of the two; and I resolved to defer
it until after I had acquired some practical experience
and dexterity in the control of my machinery.

It was expedient, of course, to make my vessel as
light as possible, and, at the same time, as large
as considerations of weight would admit. But
it was of paramount importance to have walls of great
thickness, in order to prevent the penetration of the
outer cold of space, or rather the outward passage
into that intense cold of the heat generated within
the vessel itself, as well as to resist the tremendous